Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Decisions are made by Government, not by NPHET. The latter advises Government. At the Cabinet table there is a Minister of State whose responsibility is disability. He is the voice on these matters. Where NPHET acts entirely independently of Government it is on those matters that are solely matters of public health such as the clinical criteria for testing and so on. Political decisions are made by Government.

In regard to planning, there is a national emergency plan and a pandemic plan. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, it was a plan for an influenza pandemic and we have been able to draw on it in recent weeks.

The reality of a coronavirus pandemic is somewhat different to the influenza pandemic which was predicted.

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